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Point Park University is a unique school, unlike anything I’ve ever come across before. From the start of my college career this spring semester I have learned many things – the most important being communication.

I moved to Pittsburgh the day after Thanksgiving from Kokomo, Indiana. When I got to Pittsburgh, I didn’t know anybody that lived here besides my family, so you could say I’m still fairly new to the area. I walked around Downtown and started to see a lot of students that went to Point Park.

I stopped a lot of students and asked them where good restaurants were, where to go for entertainment or what opportunities were available that I could join. Many people told me about Campus Activities Board (CAB), The Globe, the Playhouse, the Student Center and much more. Without those students I wouldn’t have been able to find my way around the campus, or have as many great friends.

Say you forget what building your class is in; you could easily speak with another student or faculty member to get the information, or you could just walk aimlessly until you find it. Obviously choosing to ask or talk with someone about it is the better option. You need to have the strength to ask for help.

Like many universities, Point Park has a diverse student body made up of people from all over the world. When you move here and don’t know anyone, it feels nice to know there are other students you can relate to.

A very difficult thing to do in such an unfamiliar environment when you’re new to it is to make friends. You have to talk with many different people that might not share the same opinions as you, but that doesn’t mean you can’t be friends. Talk with other students or join in on activities that interest you. You will find other people with similar interests and a friendship will begin.

Making friends isn’t easy, but once you have a strong core group, things become much better. A new friend showed me around Downtown Pittsburgh and introduced me to amazing new people. We went to Chipotle with some other new students and now we get together on Thursdays and go out to eat or hang out at the Student Center.

Another friend introduced me to The Jelly Fox, a new house venue that brings DIY gigs to Pittsburgh. Most performances take place there on the weekends.

When I moved to Pittsburgh, this friend was one of the first friends I made, and if I didn’t, I would have just gone to school and home every day, with no real way knowing of activities to participate in.

If I had never decided to talk to my newest friend, I don’t think I would have met some of the fantastic people that I now know in my life. If I didn’t end up being friends with another friend named Sara then I wouldn’t have decided to write this piece for The Globe in the first place.

At Point Park you have to communicate with many different people.

You will need to communicate with teachers when you can’t show up to class. Talk to classmates about the assignments that you missed. When you don’t understand something in class, you will have to ask for help. You can’t escape communication or talking to people or interacting. If you don’t interact with other people, you won’t have much to do on campus.